4 ways China’s Netease Allstars MOBA wants to break traditions

Netease recently talked to Chinese gaming news site 17173 about the unique features and future developments in store for its upcoming Netease Allstars. The talk focused on four features in particular that the company hopes will distance the game from current MOBAs like Dota 2 and League of Legends. But Netease is not alone in hoping to carve out a unique niche for its MOBA title, so will these four be enough?

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As Netease Allstars’ name suggests, the upcoming game is a crossover title featuring characters from eight other Netease games. This led many fans to draw comparisons between it and Blizzard’s more famous crossover brawler, Heroes of the Storm. The similarity was especially interesting, given Netease’s position as the distributor of Blizzard games in China. However, the company’s back catalogue is substantially weaker than Blizzard’s, and partly comprised of public domain characters such as historical figures from the Three Kingdoms era. This has left most outlets skeptical about the game’s potential.

So it’s perhaps a sensible move for Netease to come out now and declare how its game will differ from Blizzard’s. With enough distance between them, it might be able to avoid being overshadowed by Heroes of the Storm, and gain a foothold in the already-overcrowded Chinese MOBA market.

Dynamic weather conditions

The first, and perhaps most major innovation is the game’s weather system. Rather than just a range of cosmetic effects as in LoL and Dota 2, in Netease Allstars the weather will have a tangible impact on gameplay.

During snowy weather, the river freezes over, increasing movement speeds of heroes walking on it. Life regeneration is also increased, the vision range granted by the game’s bonfires will decrease, and from the next test version onwards, all brush will cease providing hiding spots. All in all, snow signals a shift towards aggressive play when it begins to fall.

(See: China’s Heroes of the Storm publisher merges MOBA with RTS, announces Netease Allstars)

During rainy weather, bonfire vision is reduced further still, while mana regeneration gets a boost. In the next version, it plans to make brush expand during this weather condition, providing more hiding spots—making rainy weather the perfect time to launch ganks. Due to the increased mana regeneration and reduced vision, it would also be a good time to fall back to your towers and defend.

Weather conditions also affect one of the game’s key systems—the five elements that players must choose from. Water and wood players will benefit during rainy weather, while fire players will be strongest during clear weather. Each element also provides three abilities (tied to D, F, and G on the keyboard) that somewhat resemble LoL’s summoner spells.

Wards out—bonfires in